Bagels with Cream Cheese
by mannequin doll
Summary: Nathan and Brooke, through the years- friendship, love, lust. Includes Brooke/Lucas, Peyton/Lucas, Nathan/Peyton, Nathan/Haley.


**Bagels with Cream Cheese**

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing except my words.  
**Summary**: Nathan and Brooke, through the years- friendship, love, lust. Includes Brooke/Lucas, Peyton/Lucas, Nathan/Peyton, Nathan/Haley.  
**Author's Notes**: I am a NH fan, through and through, but for some reason, I can't write them. At least, I can't write a whole fic about them, and I can't figure out why. Maybe it's because I can't find Haley's personality, or something. I'm not even really a Brathan fan, but it comes easy to me. This may suck, I don't really know, so review and tell me what you think!

* * *

Brooke Davis thinks that somewhere, in the back of her mind, she was always best friends with Peyton Sawyer.

If you ask her to think real hard about it, she can probably pinpoint the time and place where she first met Peyton, first befriended her; but truthfully, it feels like they've always been friends. Always shared their lunch, their homework, their dolls, and their passions.

Ever since they were ten, they've been sleeping over each other's houses every Friday night.

And when Peyton and Nathan Scott start going out in the ninth grade, he began stopping by Saturday mornings, bearing breakfast.

-

Brooke is not a morning person, and she never has been. Neither is Nathan Scott.

Yet, Brooke wakes up to Peyton's screechy music, and Nathan wakes up to his dad's screams, "Let's _go_, Nathan!"

-

Peyton likes her breakfast. She likes eggs and omelets and French toast, complete with orange juice, no pulp, please.

Nathan doesn't mind breakfast, really. He's content with whatever his mother decides to make that morning, whether it be eggs, or just a plain bagel she picked up at the store. He's supposed to be running with his dad, anyway, so as long as he can scarf the food down in minutes, it's fine with him.

Brooke hates breakfast. It reminds her that her mother never cared enough to set out food before school; nothing, nada, no granola bar or Rice Krispy. So, Brooke prefers bagels with cream cheese because there's a deli down the road, and it always smells like home.

-

Brooke Davis thinks that somewhere, in the back of her mind, she was always friends with Nathan Scott.

She can remember exactly when it happened, too. It had been kindergarten, she was playing with Peyton in the sandbox, and a raven haired boy taller than her had walked by, kicked their sand castle down, and tugged on her dark hair.

Peyton had giggled, and the boy had smirked, and Brooke had walked up to him when he was with his friends, kicked him in the stomach, and smiled. "Hi, I'm Brooke."

He was on the floor, grasping his stomach, and he managed to take her hand and smirk. "Nathan Scott."

-

After that day, the three of them are inseparable. Brooke won't lie; she hates Tim, Nathan's dim-witted best friend, and she doesn't like basketball, Nathan's favorite sport, and she much prefers shopping than watching them practice in the school gym.

Peyton, however, laughs at Tim's jokes, and she watches basketball on ESPN, and she doesn't care for clothes as much as she does for Nathan.

And that is really, truly, what sets her and Brooke apart.

-

Brooke isn't surprised when her two friends begin dating. It's a match made in heaven, really. There's the jock, and the cheerleader, and they were friends first, and Brooke has to wonder why it's _Peyton _he kisses and _Peyton _he holds and _Peyton _he ultimately chooses.

-

Freshman year is a series of fights and break ups and making up and sex and lies and betrayal.

Freshman year, Brooke Davis loses her virginity.

Freshman year, Nathan Scott does, too.

-

"It was amazing, B. Davis. Seriously. I'd never felt anything like it," Peyton gushes and smiles and laughs as she recalls the night she first had sex with Nathan Scott.

Brooke rolls her eyes. "Trust me, the feeling wears off." _It's true, at least if you scrub your skin hard enough with hot water scalding down your back_, she thinks to herself.

"Well, not if you're in love," Peyton insists. "I love him, Brooke. I really do."

Brooke manages a smile. _Me too, P. Sawyer. Me, too._

-

Nathan and Peyton are a train wreck. By sophomore year, his ego has inflated, and her moodiness has taken its toll, and they're at each other's throats every minute of the day, but not in the way they should be.

Brooke often finds herself the mediator to their petty fights and immature arguments.

"She's a bitch, Brooke. I don't know how you put up with her," Nathan sighs, throwing a basketball up in the air as he lays on Brooke's four poster bed.

Brooke is in front of her vanity, brushing her hair, and she rolls her eyes. "Oh, please, you guys are gonna make up by tomorrow and have some hot make up sex." She wiggles her eyebrows, and he laughs.

"Maybe I don't want to."

This time, she raises her eyebrows and turns to face him. "You don't want to have hot sex?"

He laughs. "No, I don't want to make up. I'm always up for some hot sex."

She smiles knowingly.

-

They do make up, though, and Brooke has to force herself to look happy when Peyton relays the news to her.

-

They are her two best friends, always have been, and Brooke Davis has to wonder where it all went wrong.

* * *

She thinks it started when he stopped making breakfast for Peyton, and started bringing bagels with cream cheese on Saturday mornings.

"Oh, do it _again_," Brooke pants, and Nathan complies as he shoves his length into her again and again and again.

It's Friday night, and Brooke doesn't bat an eyelash when she tells Peyton that she missed their weekly sleepovers because her mother is in town.

-

Brooke and Peyton are best friends, and they clash, a lot. But, they've never really fought until a boy with icy blue eyes and blonde hair enters the picture.

His name is Lucas. Lucas Scott, and he's Nathan's brother.

-

"Don't call him that," Nathan grits out when Brooke and Peyton both burst into laughter as Peyton tells them how she almost ran over the older Scott brother.

"Well, he is," Brooke points out. "And he's always looking at Peyton over here. You guys have things in common, after all."

She shares a glance with Peyton, and they go into a fit of giggles once more as Nathan groans and falls back against the bed with his two favorite girls lying next to him. One is his girlfriend, her curly blonde hair falling against his neck, and he has the urge to brush it off, but he stays still. The other girl falls asleep with her head on his shoulder and her heart on her sleeve.

-

When Nathan and Peyton break up for good, Brooke Davis isn't surprised. She saw it coming as soon as she saw Lucas and Peyton lock eyes.

-

"You're the hottest girl I know, Brookie. Really, you are," Nathan slurs in his drunken stupor as Brooke tries to shove him into her room.

It's late, and they're coming home from another party, and Peyton is God knows where doing God knows what, and Brooke is in charge of making sure Nathan is safe.

"Jeez, Nate, what'd you drink?" she mutters to herself, dragging him up the stairs and when she finally gets him into her room, she leaves him on the floor and climbs into bed, still in her party clothes and her make-up.

When she wakes up and sees the empty floor, she smiles when she feels him next to her, his light snoring putting her back to sleep.

When she wakes up again, he's gone.

-

Brooke likes Haley James; she's smart, and kind, and really pretty, and she can see why Nathan takes a liking to her as well.

Brooke doesn't think Haley James is anywhere near good enough for her best friend, and everyone else seems to think the situation is vice versa, but she doesn't say anything because Nathan deserves to be happy.

-

When Lucas chooses Brooke, she has to stop herself from screaming, "Ha! Take that, you _lose_," to Peyton.

It's the first time anyone has really chosen Brooke, and even if in the back of her mind, she knows it won't last, it doesn't stop her from basking in the moment.

-

She doesn't like fooling herself. It's not like she thought she and Lucas were going to get married, or anything.

But when she sees him making out with her _best friend_, her _BEST FRIEND_, it doesn't make it any less easy. The tears roll down her cheeks, and she can't stop from crying.

-

"I wanted to be the girl he told his grandchildren about. The one that got away. The one he _loved_, the one he'll always feel a little something for," Brooke realizes.

Nathan is holding her, and Brooke has never felt safer. He has Haley, and Lucas has Peyton, but in the moment, nothing else matters because Nathan is holding _Brooke_.

"I'll tell my grandchildren about you," he murmurs into her neck, stroking her hair. "You're my best friend, Brooke. Always have been. And I'll _always _feel something for you."

-

The next day, Brooke sees Nathan and Haley holding hands, Lucas and Peyton laughing in the school quad, and it doesn't hurt so much anymore.

It doesn't hurt at all, because that morning, Brooke Davis woke up to a brown bag on her kitchen table, holding a bagel with cream cheese.


End file.
